Just A Dream
by The Fluffy Muffin Queen
Summary: Seven years after the ending of 'Spirited Away', Chihiro's school gets attacked by a yokai. She is pushed into a journey to make sure the yokai and spirits that are ever so real continue to be considered only a thing of mythology. But, Haku's there...so..
1. A Predicament

_(A/N: Hello Spirited Away fans! It is I… You don't know me, do you? –le sigh- Oooooooooooof course you wouldn't… I mostly do InuYasha, thus the name The Kikyo Hater… -mutters something rather violent about how I wish Kikyo would just…- -ahem- Yeah, so… This would be my first Spirited Away Fan Fiction, but I'm hoping you guys will like it just as much as my other reviewers like my 'Reincarnations'… But that's a different story… Anywho…_

_Summery: Chihiro's life has, somewhat, become normal. It has been seven years since she left the bath house, but Chihiro still greatly misses it… and Haku. Besides the taunting of the other high school students (all because of her saying she believed in spirits in the sixth grade for pity's sake!) and the dreams of a life back with her old friends, hell, even Yubaba would be nice, Chihiro's life isn't all that bad. That is, until a yokai (supernatural being, often times called a demon/ghost/goblin) almost destroys her school. Chihiro is thrown back into the unknown world of the spirits and is forced to help keep the yokai and spirits under wraps. How? … She doesn't really know…_

_**Disclaimer: **I, in no way, shape, or form, own Spirited Away. It is all __Hayao Miyazaki__'s work. Not mine… However… MWAHAHAHUAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!! … -ahem- Actually, no, no not really. I'll never own it… -tear-_

_P.S. I'm using the Japanese names and stuff, so don't be surprise if you've only ever seen the English version and don't know who Boh is or Kaonashi is. Here are, I think, the only names that you guys won't know that I use in here:_

_Aogaeru: That one annoying dude who kept showing up. He was the one who refused to give Chihiro/Sen the bath tokens for the big tub._

_Kaonashi: No Face._

_Boh: Yubaba's son._

_Rin: Lin. Often times, I've noticed, when translated into English, they use put the letter 'L' in place of the 'R'. My only guess is that, since the Japanese R is more like a D/L, to make it easier for the people being the voices of these Japanese people, they change the R into an L. That's the only reason I can find… but ah well. Anyways, on with the story!_

_The Kikyo Hater)_

**Chapter One**

**A Predicament**

Chihiro stared at her hands, her long nails slowly playing around the pencil in her hand. She hated school, she really did. It wasn't the teachers and the homework that she hated. Oh no… she could take all that. But the taunts? The insults? I mean… how would YOU feel if, after seven years, the names never got any better? '_It's almost as if they aren't even trying!_' she thought, leaning back in her chair. After a while, Chihiro found it fun to come up with comebacks for the names and insults thrown at her, but you can only use a comeback for so long before that in itself becomes something people can make fun of you for. And of course all the said names/insults/taunting REEEEEEEEEAAAAAAAAALLY helped her self esteem!

… Yeah. Right. And the Radish Spirit likes jumping out windows, growing and flapping his wings, and flying!

Note the sarcasm…

Two giggling girls sauntered by Chihiro, who looked up, lifting an eyebrow slightly. The two girls moved together, one lifting her hand and whispering, her voice carrying nevertheless. "Ooooooooh… I heard Chihiro once talked about a RADISH Spirit! No doubt that's her boyfriend!"

Chihiro sighed and fell back into her miserable 'my life sucks, shoot me' pose. She really wished they'd either just stop, or come up with better insults. These were getting tiring!

Her long brown hair fell into her face as she bent over her work. It was a drawing of the ancient bath house. Everybody was there; Kaonashi, Yubaba, Boh, Aogaeru, Rin, Kamaji, Haku, Zeniba… Everybody. Chihiro didn't know over half of the names; most of the yokai who worked there didn't bother to socialize with a human, but she had slowly earned their trust and respect.

It was exactly like how she remembered it the day she had left, with a few of the friends that hadn't been there added in.

She was working on Haku's face, a delicate blush gently spreading across her cheeks, when the drawing was ripped away from her.

Crying out indignantly, she reached forward, but her hand only managed to grasp air.

The most popular boy in school, Akai Aguri, was holding it, a smirk plastered on his handsome face.

"Hey, give that back Aguri-kun!" she cried, reaching for the drawing again, only to have him keep her away with a single hand as he held it out of her reach.

"Iie," he said, smirking. "I don't think I want to."

Chihiro took a deep breath. He was worse than Boh and more of a baby than he ever… well, no… Boh had been more of a huge spoiled baby (no pun intended) than Aguri, but he was testing the limits. And, anyways, Boh had been kept inside and spoiled his entire life; it's not like things like that don't make a person, and after they had gone to his aunt, he had changed and became nice to her.

"Aguri-kun," Chihiro said, straightening her back and standing quietly, her face impassive and her hands held limply at her side. She was the perfect image of one who was addressing someone respectfully with still keeping eye contact and not submitting to them. "Will you _please_ give me back my drawing. I need it if I want to get a good grade in this class. You know how Godai-sensei doesn't accept late work… and I worked so hard on that drawing… Onegai?"

Aguri stood there, eyeing Chihiro, but smirked and turned away, folding the paper. Chihiro bit down a protest and stood there, watching.

He turned his head towards her. "No."

"Shittama," Chihiro swore, leaping forward. So long polite-Chihiro, hello pissed-off-Chihiro!

"Give it back to me!" she cried, making her sensei lift his head, his bushy eyebrows pulling together in annoyance, his old slumped back making him look for all the world like an angry grandfather.

"Akai-san! Omi-san! What is the meaning of this!?"

Both students froze and broke apart, Chihiro's eyes downcast in respect, Aguri's eyes showing nothing but coldness as he smirked, a smirk that didn't even touch his eyes.

"Chihiro-kun stole my work, and I was just getting it back."

Chihiro's jaw dropped. _WHAT!?_ She hardly stole _HIS_ work! He stole _HER'S_.

"Godai-sensei!" Chihiro protested, turning pleadingly to him, but he shook his head. "Omi-san… I thought you could do better. Very well, Akai-san. Omi-san, _out_! We will be having an assembly soon, so you might as well wait outside for it."

Tears threatened to prick at Chihiro's eyes but she clasped her mouth shut, her eyes narrowing into injured slits as she stared at her teacher, and after a minute of pinning her teacher with a hurt and angry glare, she bowed stiffly, murmuring a soft, "Hai, Godai-sensei," and turned away, determinately not even looking at Aguri. She didn't _need_ to look at him to tell that he was smirking at her.

Closing the door silently, Chihiro pressed her back against the wall and slid down, cupping her head in her hands. It was silly, really. It was only a drawing, after all. And, seven years ago, Chihiro had been almost desperate to leave. Her only friends had been Rin, Kamaji, and Haku. Everybody else had looked down on her and Kaonashi had turned out to be a monster… but still, at least he HAD tried to be nice… and the bath tokens he had given her had helped her with the river spirit…

Sighing, she shook her head. But she had been working on that drawing for little over a month, and just to see old faces… faces she hadn't seen since she was ten…

'_Chihiro, it's ok. You don't need a drawing to tell you that everything you saw was real, right? Don't you think I exist?_' Haku's voice spoke softly in her ear, making her smile.

'_No, but you said you'd come for me! Most girls my age have had twelve boyfriends by now. But me? No! I'd wait a hundred years for you, Haku… but waiting in this place makes me feel like it's been a hundred years already! And the insults are getting annoying and the people are so mean and I-_'

She could almost hear his gentle voice shushing her. '_I'm coming, I'm coming. Yubaba only let me go after five more years of being her apprentice… annoying old bat… but an ancient spirit of the Kohaku River who has no home can hardly just pop up in public and look for you… I'm coming, I swear…_'

"That's it… I'm going insane," Chihiro muttered, wiping the last traces of tears from her face and eyes. "I'm talking to someone who isn't even here in my mind…"

'_Still,_' said mind reasoned. '_It makes me feel better, doesn't it?_'

Before she could reply to the voice, the door burst open and her teacher nodded to her, motioning for her to stand. It was time for the assembly.

* * *

Chihiro shifted uncomfortably. '_You'd think they could make these things comfortable!_' she thought angrily, referring to the hard wooden bleachers.

Somebody behind her slipped some sort of cold drink down Chihiro's spine. She jumped, earning her some confused looks from those around her.

Whirling around, she pinned a random person who she thought had done it (he _was _smirking and holding and empty milkshake or coke from McDonalds) with a glare from hell. "Yarou!" she hissed, earning "Ooooooooooh…"s and "Oh ho, looks like little Spirit Girl's finally fightin' back!"s.

It was seriously annoying.

Turning back to the assembly, she watched quietly.

Suddenly, the school began to quiver.

Chihiro looked around as the assembly paused. Another quiver. A couple of the younger students moved together. Another quiver.

'_It… it sounds like-_'

Another quiver.

'_Foot steps!_'

With each quiver, a sound came with it and it slowly grew. The sound was like some giant t-rex from that one American movie Jurassic Park was stalking towards them. Only slower. And louder. Much louder.

Everybody sat, quiet, fear stilling their bodies and making their hearts pound in their ears. Chihiro sat alone, her eyes narrowing. Only once had she ever heard anything like this… The memory still haunted her.

_The rain made Sen shiver. She moved away from the window, keeping her eyes trained on whatever was outside. Something was coming; the way Yubaba was running around made her positive of it._

_Rin walked by but paused, watching Sen look outside. "Hey, Sen… what is it?" she asked, coming up beside the young girl. Sen looked up and gave a nod to Rin before turning back to the window._

"_I… I donno, but… Haven't you heard it?"_

_Rin's eyebrow rose. "Heard what?"_

"_The rattling and the thumping. As soon as there's a thump outside… things rattle in here… and Yubaba thinks something's coming…"_

_Rin sighed, shaking her head. "Don't worry about it to much… no doubt some stray yokai is walking around. Yokai aren't allowed in the bath house unless they work for Yubaba, since it's only for the spirits."_

_Sen nodded but stayed where she was, watching the rain pitter patter against the window._

_In three hours time, everybody had notice the sound. It was impossible not to. Spoons were falling off of tables, water was sloshing over the sides of baths, and the sound of the footsteps was unbearable!_

_Sen rushed back to the window she had strayed from an hour and a half ago. There, outside in the rain, stood a hulking shadow in the rough shape of some ragged grizzly bear, but over three times the size. Eight eyes were scattering randomly across its brow, and, even in through the rain, they glowed in night, their catlike slits and sickly yellow color making Sen's stomach protest against the food it had been given moments ago._

_Another figure rushed out of the bathhouse. Yubaba was confronting the creature._

A scream ripped Chihiro from her memories. The vice-principle, her hair disheveled and her eyes wide with terror, came running into the gym. "Something's coming this way!" she cried. "And I don't think it's going to be good for us when it gets here!"

A roar like the yokai's on the night of Chihiro's memory shook the school and she bit her lip. She could… lead it away…

Her eyes roamed over everybody in the gym. But… why should she? These people, the ones she might risk her life for if she lead the thing away, they ridiculed her; made her life miserable…

'_And, anyways,_' the reasonable voice told her. '_You don't even know of it really IS a yokai… It could be something else… something much more dangerous…_'

'_But, even though these people have their faults,_' she argued angrily. '_They are still innocent and haven't done anything all THAT bad…_'

Shaking all thoughts away, good and bad, she stood and leapt down the bleachers. Her sudden movement snapped some people out of their trance. She quickly ran to a side door, turning and shouting, "Are you guys' nuts or something!? Get outa here! I'm going to see what I can do!"

With that, she was out, rushing past the cafeteria, her blood rushing in her ears, drowning out all sound, and her heart pounding in her throat.

'_Oh Kami… what have I done?_' she thought. Had she just, in a moment of heroic stupidity, condemned herself?

No time to think about that now!

The dry and brittle grass of the field outside cracked under her sneakers. Another roar snapped Chihiro out of her thoughts and she whirled around. Another bear yokai stood there, though this time, there was only five eyes.

It loomed above her, all five eyes narrowing in hatred. The ancient myths of yokai killing humans rushed through Chihiro's mind, but as she fell back on her behind and raised her arm, as though shielding her from that glare, every thought disappeared from her mind. All but one name.

'_Haku…_'

Out of the corner of her eye, she saw something flash, but was more distracted by the giant bear about to kill her. Closing her eyes as it reached back a paw, its claws as thick and fat as her arms had been at ten years old, she thought of Haku again. His face flashed before her and she squeezed her eyes as shut as they could, anticipating the attack.

'_Haku… tasukete…_'

_(A/N: What'd ya think? Good? HHBad? Ok? Just press that little 'review' button and tell me… I'd like to know! Will Chihiro survive the bear yokai's attack? Where's Haku? And what was that flash? … I sound like I'm setting you guy's up for the next edition of a Soap! Ah well… But those will be the questions answered in the next chapter! Over an' out!_

_The Kikyo Hater)_


	2. A Familiar Face

**Chapter Two**

**A Familiar Face**

She waited. A second… Two seconds… Three…

'_Chikusho!_' she thought, too frightened to open her eyes. The ringing in her ears (if truth be told, Chihiro hadn't really realized that her ears had been ringing…), and as it slowly drifted away, she could hear the sounds of a fight.

She slowly gathered the courage and opened her eyes. Her eyelashes melded everything together, and it wasn't until her eyes shot open that the brown and silver formed into two distinct shapes. One, of course, was the bear yokai, its flailing limbs and dangerous sickly yellow eyes and sheer size making it a frightening creature.

And one was a dragon.

A silver dragon. With teal ripples of hair down its spine and sharp claws.

The hissing sounds coming from it made her cringe as its claws broke through the yokai's pelt. "Ha-Haku?" Chihiro whispered, leaning forward, still on her knees.

Haku was thrown away by the bear who turned back to Chihiro, as if blaming her for the injuries Haku had given him. Her own eyes narrowed and it was only the fear of Haku's safety and that small annoying voice in the back of her head telling her it was foolhardy to attack this thing keeping her back.

A flash of silver made Chihiro cry out and fall back as Haku slithered in between the yokai and her. His lips rose and a hiss slowly seeped out from his clenched teeth. The bear growled and took a step forward, but froze. Its eyes, far from feral, even if it couldn't speak, shot from Chihiro to Haku, and back again. Then, with what Chihiro could swear was a shrug, it turned away.

Haku turned back to Chihiro to find her hugging his head, the only part she could really get close enough, and pressing her forehead affectionately into his.

Tugging his head away, Haku took a step back, letting the scales fall from his lean form to let a boy of eighteen or nineteen years stand there, his hair no longer that of the thirteen year old Chihiro knew. It was short and ruffled, looking very attractive on him. But his eyes, those deep emerald orbs, were the same.

Then she was on him again, clinging to him and laughing and crying at the same time. Seven years, seven long years, since she had seen him, and she felt that if she let him go, Haku would disappear from her. Forever.

"Haku! Haku! You're here! You're really here!"

He grinned and pulled away from her slightly. "Did you ever doubt I'd find you again?"

Chihiro shook her head wildly, her long brown hair that had grown to her waist flying about in its braid. The ribbon her friends had created for her shimmering on its end. "Of course not! I never doubted your word for a second, but…"

She leaned back into his haori. The feeling she got there… it was… nice.

"But?" he prompted, wrapping his arms around her.

"But… I was beginning to lose hope you'd ever find me before I was an old lady… and then…"

She didn't need to finish her sentence. If he HAD found her as an old lady… their time in each other's company would've been extremely short.

Shaking away the thoughts, Chihiro pulled away from him and began to study him closer. Everything, besides the hair, was the save, down to the outfit, though it was slightly larger than his old one, to fit him, of course.

"Chihiro…?"

His voice made the said girl jump, looking back up at him. A smile spread across her face and her bright hazel eyes sparkled. "Hai?"

Haku was looking her over, taking in her ripped jeans from a fall ages past, the grass stained knees, her t-shirt with the words "I have the body of a god (unfortunately, it's Buddha)" in English. She blushed when he looked her over. '_Thank you Obaa-chama for having it in English! That would've been… embarrassing, to say the least!_'**1**

Chihiro took a deep breath, fully intent on asking Haku why a giant bear yokai had attacked her… or more why a giant bear yokai was here in the first place, but she didn't need to. He answered her question without stopping making sure no limbs had been ripped off and she bore nothing worse than fright and a bruise here and there.

"I don't know. Yokai have suddenly appeared everywhere in Japan. Most spirits have kept a low profile, but more than a few have also appeared."

She opened her mouth-

"I don't know that one either. They have absolutely NOTHING to benefit them suddenly appearing back, ripping themselves out of myths and stories."

She opened her mouth again.

"That one I _do_ know! The only reason they could be turning up is that something is driving them insane with the need to attack…"

'_Ok, one more time!_' Chihiro thought, slightly annoyed that she didn't even _need_ to get a word in.

Opening her mouth experimentally, a determined look on her face.

Nothing.

She closed her mouth and thought for a bit. Was there any way of making them stop? Of keeping spirits and yokai from suddenly making an appearance and killing hundreds of people?

She opened her mouth to try and ask but-

"I don't know. We'll need to talk to one of the four Taisho. They represent the four seasons. A cold and distant dog demon for winter, a warm cat demon for summer, an old tree demon for fall, and a young wolf demon for spring. Well… young for yokai, and warm for yokai. Either way you look at it, the dog and the tree are cold and old but…"**2**

Chihiro narrowed her eyes at her. "How did you know what I was going to ask?"

He shrugged. "I just had a feeling… that and I asked the same questions myself to Zeniba when I heard about it. She told me that the yokai were attacking humans, and I took my leave to make sure you were ok. Seems I came just in time."

Chihiro nodded, biting her lower lip to make herself stop blushing.

Opening her mouth, she watched as Haku began to answer and closed her mouth again, raising an eyebrow.

"We'll need to travel to one of the four yokai. Or to all of them. Each month at the full moon they met in a glade and talk about treaties, how their kingdoms are doing, ect. ect."

Chihiro jumped. "You mean the spirits allow yokai to rule over them?"

He shook his head. "No. Only weak spirits allow the four Taisho to rule over them. The higher ones, the ones you saw at the bathhouse, were the ones that nobody could rule or contain. They are usually peaceful, but powerful. The river spirit that you helped is one example of the power but peacefulness that they have," he explained, finally looked back at her. "So, he concluded. "You wanna come and help?"

Chihiro leaned on one leg, her sarcasm coming in for a moment. "I need to think about it- Yes!" she cried, grabbing his hand and yanking him in a random direction. The laughter behind her made her jump and look about. Haku was laughing his ass off.

"What!?" Chihiro asked, putting her hands on her hips and clenching her teeth as she always did when annoyed at a peer.

"Wrong direction," he rasped, shaking his head and still grinning. They had both changed. They had changed a lot. But, if truth be told, Chihiro liked seeing Haku laugh. It made her smile.

He turned back to his dragon form, his body growing to that of a serpent's, but with the claws of a komodo dragon.

Grinning, Chihiro jumped onto Haku's back, hugging his neck and whispering into his ear, "Haku… Arigato…" She felt just like the ten year old she still was on the inside. Haku smiled and took off. '_Time for something new,_' Chihiro thought drowsily before the day's events made her slip into the welcome world of unconsciousness, her body still clinging to Haku's neck.

**1**_) Well, hello there! First author's note!!!! W000000000T!!!!! XD This is so that all the people who read my stories can keep on reading, or look down here for the author's notes/foot notes. Ok… The "I have a body of a god, unfortunately it's Buddha" is an actual t-shirt! I saw it shopping for Christmas presents AAAAAAAAAAGESSSSSSSSSS ago! Just thought I'd put that in… Look for your nearest Holiday Market t-shirt rack for it! It's FAWESOME!!!!! … -cough- So… I'll… just… go now… -jumps out of side of screen-_

**2**_) For us InuYasha fans, we AAAAAAAAAAAAALL know two of the four demons. Or at the VERY least _one_!!!! –ahem- _Sesshomaru_ and_ Koga_!!!! Dog and wolf!!!! As for the cat yokai and the tree yokai… just ideas._

**3**_) This idea came from Warriors, with the gatherings! The four Clans of the forest gather every full moon at either Fourtrees or The Island, depending on which series you're reading, Warriors or New Prophecy… or is it still The Island? I haven't finished Sunset yet so… -shrugs- Meh, unimportant. Either way, they meet on neutral ground, and it's going to be much the same with the four yokai leaders._


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